"Now here's a little story I've got to tell/About three bad brothers you know so well" - lyrics are similar to those in "Stoop Rap" by Double Trouble from the Wild Style soundtrack ("Well, here's a little story that must be told about two cool brothers that were put on hold")

Commentary:

Beastie Boys

"That backwards 808? If I think right, it was actually Joe, Run, from Run-DMC. It was his idea to flip the tape up. He was there, like, 'Hey, y'all should flip the tape around so that shit's backwards.' Either that, or we had it on backwards and he heard it, he bugged out, and that's when he said, 'Y'all have to do a story rhyme over the shit.' And he came in started writing the shit with us." - Michael Diamond, 1995

Press

"...just plain odd" - excerpted from Rhyming & Stealing: A History of the Beastie Boys by Angus Batey, 1998

"It was Run's idea to turn the beat backwards on 'Paul Revere.' They wanted to have a slow beat, and Run was like, 'To make it outrageous you need to turn the beat backwards and rhyme over that.'" - Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, excerpted from The Skills to Pay the Bills by Alan Light, 2005

"I think that the whole concept of trying the drum backwards was a mistake, and then it turned into a record. Everybody was congratulating themselves on how creative they were, but in fact, it was really a mistake." - Russell Simmons, excerpted from The Skills to Pay the Bills by Alan Light, 2005